Henrik Nánási rehearses Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle at the Palau de les Arts

– Davide Livermore proposes a stage space with video projections by Miguel Bosch for this concert opera
– Hungarian bass Gábor Bretz and Russian mezzo-soprano Elena Zhidkova play Duke Bluebeard and Judith
– The program also includes Bartók's Divertimento for String Orchestra

Valencia. Conductor Henrik Nánási is in Valencia immersed in rehearsals for Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle , the work with which he will inaugurate the concert season at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía on Friday, November 7.

Maestro Nánási makes his debut leading the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana with this monograph of Béla Bartók, which also includes the work Divertimento for string orchestra .

The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía has prepared an audiovisual spectacle for Bluebeard's Castle , presented in a stage design by Davide Livermore with video projections by Miguel Bosch. Their proposal intertwines the pictorial symbolism of Gustav Klimt with Bartók's metaphorical conception of 'Bluebeard'.

The Hungarian Henrik Nánási (Pécs, 1975) is currently the music director of the Komische Oper Berlin. His extensive repertoire includes works by Donizetti, Mozart, Puccini, Rossini, and Verdi, as well as Tchaikovsky, Dvořák, Offenbach, Prokofiev, and Richard Strauss. Considered one of the most promising young conductors in Europe, he has been a guest conductor at the Verona Arena, the Bavarian State Opera, Covent Garden, the Frankfurt Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, and the Hamburg State Opera.

In the concert field he has conducted the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz, Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Vienna Radio-Symphonieorchester, St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra and the orchestras of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Toulon Opera and Teatro San Carlo of Naples.

Elena Zhidkova sings the role of Judith. The Petersburg-born mezzo-soprano made her debut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She has sung in Bayreuth (Flosshilde and Schwertleite), Dresden (Venus), Leipzig (Adrian in Rienzi), Madrid (Waltraute and Brangäne), and Tokyo (Dorabella, Oktavian, and Fricka).

After her highly successful debut as Judith in Bluebeard's Castle at La Scala , she reprised the role in Amsterdam, at the Saito Kinen Festival with Seiji Ozawa, in London with Valery Gergiev (released on CD), and at the Mariinsky Theatre. In concert, she has been conducted by Claudio Abbado, Christoph von Dohnányi, Daniel Harding, and Valery Gergiev.

Hungarian bass Gábor Bretz embodies Bluebeard. A native of Budapest, he won the Maria Callas Competition in 2005. He has performed, among others, the roles of Mefistofele, Figaro, Leporello, Don Giovanni, Banquo and Landgraf, Don Basilio, Escamillo, and, on numerous occasions, Bluebeard, with orchestras such as the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Bayerische Rundfunk, and the New York Philharmonic, under the baton of conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Gustavo Dudamel, Adam Fischer, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Bluebeard's Duke's Castle

Bluebeard's Castle is the only opera composed by Béla Bartók. The libretto is by the poet Béla Balázs, based on the fairy tale Bluebeard by Charles Perrault. Bartók achieved great success at the premiere of this work on May 24, 1918, in Budapest.

The narrator of the brief prologue preceding the opera announces to the audience that the story they are about to witness will draw them into a dreamlike world that invites reflection on human emotions. His mysterious voice dissolves into the darkness that pervades the stage. Immediately, the silhouette of Duke Bluebeard appears, accompanied by his new wife, Judith, whom he shows the grand hall of his castle. The young woman, in love with Bluebeard, soon feels enveloped by an aura of coldness and gloom. He repeatedly asks her if she is afraid, to which she simply replies that she will bring light to the castle.

Seven large, locked doors pique Judith's curiosity, and she begs her husband to open them as proof of his love. He, captivated by the young woman's passionate devotion, gives her the key to the first door. Beyond it, Judith discovers the duke's torture chamber, where the light of dawn is rising. Soon after, she sees blood staining the walls, yet she believes that if she opens all the doors, light will return to the castle.

Judith enters the successive chambers through the doors: in the second, she discovers Bluebeard's armory; the third hides her husband's treasures and jewels; the fourth, an enchanted garden; in the fifth, the duke's vast domains are revealed, while the sixth conceals a lake of tears. Bluebeard, intoxicated, embraces her and tells her that the seventh door must always remain closed. But Judith, who has seen blood in all the previous chambers, demands to know the secrets her beloved hides. Behind the seventh door appear the duke's first three wives, who embody, respectively, morning, midday, and evening. Judith joins them as a representation of night. Bluebeard's castle is plunged into darkness.